In 2025, fire departments serving Appleton responded to 485 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $179K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,630 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $11.3M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 546 | — | |
| 2022 | 550 | +0.7% | |
| 2023 | 487 | -11.5% | |
| 2024 | 562 | +15.4% | |
| 2025 | 485 | -13.7% |
For the 48 building fires Appleton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 380 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 61 | 16.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 47 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 45 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 25 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Exterior, exposed surface | 12 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 11 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 11 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 131 | 34.5% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Appleton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 138 | 36.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 60 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 30 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 26 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 16 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 11 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 54 | 14.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Appleton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 67% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $179,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $107,400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Appleton sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
61 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 25 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 7 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,141 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 829 | 43.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 630 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 508 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 385 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 366 | 12.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 320 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 275 | 19.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 262 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 170 | 44.7 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Wisconsin cities with population within ±25% of Appleton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Appleton.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.